Shoe covers are an established technology for protecting shoes from environmental damage due to water, snow, dirt, salt and other chemicals, in order to give the wearer an improved functionality and protection. For instance, an improved grip may be achieved by providing a nonskid ability. Also, an improved fit may better protect the wearer and/or the shoe to be covered. Shoe covers—otherwise known as overshoes or galoshes—may be worn over a variety of shoe types, including dress shoes, golf shoes, sporting shoes, sneakers, boots, work boots, or any other type of footwear. They may also be worn directly over the sock or foot of a wearer.
Most shoe covers include an upper portion and a sole. The wearer inserts his or her shoe into an opening in the upper portion. The sole may be composed of front and back parts which may be separated by an arched portion.
To fulfill many of its functions and to increase the comfort of the wearer, a shoe cover should be able to fit properly over the shoe of the wearer. Known shoe covers have been made with flexible materials, usually thin rubber, and are frequently stretched over a shoe. A variety of types of stretchable shoe covers have been used to fit many different sizes of shoes, to improve the tightness of the fit and to facilitate the process of putting the shoe cover over the shoe. Shoe covers in the prior art have been additionally provided with corrugations, stretchable materials or other mechanical elements such as zippers or Velcro to improve the fit over a shoe. However, the shoe covers found in the prior art still present disadvantages, among which are adapting to shoes of differing sizes, providing satisfactory gripping ability and fitting properly throughout the gait and stride of a variety of wearers.
A particular shoe cover found in the prior art is disclosed by U.S. Pat. No. 6,568,101 B1 (JANSEN et al.). This patent describes a softspiked overshoe suitable for use when playing golf. This overshoe has a rigid sole provided with a checkered raised grid and softspikes disposed thereon. Furthermore, JANSEN et al. teach that the arch portion of the sole is provided with greater flexibility than the toe and heel portions of the sole, and that the toe and heel portions may be provided with greater rigidity than the upper portion of the shoe-covering. This variability in rigidity and flexibility enables the different regions to cooperate and allows the overshoe to adapt to some foot movements. However, this overshoe presents disadvantages as it does not take into account the fit over the entire shoe, but focuses only on certain parts of the overshoe.
The U.S. Pat. No. 3,026,635 (SLADE) describes an elastomeric overshoe having a plurality of spaced corrugations on the arch portion of the sole as well as a plurality of vertical corrugations on the upper part of the overshoe. The corrugations may be flattened and compressed to provide flexibility and fitting ability to the overshoe.
The U.S. Pat. No. 5,425,186 (HOYT) describes an overshoe with an accordion-type sole. HOYT teaches a sole with horizontal corrugations (“accordion-like configuration”) on the heel and toe portions thereof, thus enabling the sole to stretch longitudinally to facilitate putting it on a shoe while maintaining a certain level of rigidity.
The U.S. Pat. No. 5,396,717 (BELL) describes a convertible overshoe with tear resistant bead. BELL teaches that the overshoe may have thinner sidewall portions having a trim line at their upper part, which attaches to an upper portion. The thinner sidewall portions enable the overshoe to accommodate a larger primary shoe, but still present disadvantages such as its fit and adapting ability when walking.
Other patents such as U.S. Pat. No. 6,675,504 B1, U.S. Pat. No. 4,434,565 and U.S. Pat. No. 2,068,238; describe various types of shoe covers having an upper part and a sole, the sole being separated into two parts by an arched portion and possibly provided with spikes or other traction means.
However, as is known to a person skilled in the art, the shoe covers found in the prior art present numerous disadvantages and inefficiencies, and there is currently a need for improvement in this field.